BOSTON — As Democrats hammer the private financial practices of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the GOP's nominee-in-waiting, Boston is becoming a favorite staging ground for their attacks. Today's example: a visit from Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Schultz's Boston trip was triggered by a recent article in Vanity Fair. The piece detailed Mitt Romney's financial ties to the Cayman Islands and Bermuda — where Romney owns a corporation, Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors, about which little is known. At a morning presser at the Mass. Democratic Party's Summer Street HQ, Wasserman Schultz said Romney's offshore accounts show that a Romney presidency would be shrouded in secrecy.

Romney forecast: cloudy and shroud-y?

"If for some reason Mitt Romney actually became president," Wasserman Schultz said, "having a penchant for secrecy allows — means that it is more likely that decisions made in the White House would be shrouded in secrecy … important decisions related to the economy and taxation and whether or not we go to war and intelligence, that sometimes [need to] have some light shed on it when it's not classified. We cannot have a cloud and a shroud, basically, descend over the White House. And that's what we'd be risking with Mitt Romney as president."

Wasserman's comments are part of a concerted effort by national Democrats to make Romney's personal finances a campaign issue as he challenges Democratic President Barack Obama. Over the weekend, the Romney campaign fired back, saying that Romney has paid "every dime of taxes he owes" and accusing President Obama of using "false and dishonest attacks" in an effort to keep his job.

SALEM, Mass. — In 2010, Rep. John Tierney's wife Patrice pled guilty to helping her fugitive brother file false tax returns. Ever since, the North Shore Democrat has been dogged by questions about his possible involvement. Now Tierney has responded to incendiary charges from his wife's brothers, who say Tierney knew all about their illegal gambling operation.

At a press conference on the afternoon of July 3, Tierney aggressively pushed back against recent allegations from his brothers-in-law Daniel and Robert Eremian. The week before, after Daniel Eremian was sentenced on gambling charges, he said Tierney was fully aware of the illegal offshore gambling outfit he ran with his brother Robert, who's currently a fugitive in Antigua. The next day Robert Eremian agreed in a phone interview with the Boston Globe.

But during a lengthy and occasionally combative appearance, Tierney said his brothers-in-law couldn't be trusted.

"I think they're very angry," he said. "I think they're angry and bitter — Danny, certainly, at the sentence they got, but I also think they're angry that their brother-in-law the congressman didn't make this matter go away for them. And that they also think that I was responsible for not allowing them to talk to their sister for the last couple of years. In fact, that was an instruction from her probation officer. And they're quite furious about that."

Richard Tisei, Tierney's Republican opponent, has said that Tierney's claims of innocence are implausible. Tierney accused Tisei of not wanting to talk about real issues. But at this point in the race, the question of what Tierney knew and when he knew it may be the biggest issue of all.
]]>Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:33 AM +0000http://www.wgbh.org//articles/Still-Waiting-for-the-Health-Care-Decision-6592
http://www.wgbh.org//articles/Still-Waiting-for-the-Health-Care-Decision-6592
June 25, 2012

The Supreme Court health care ruling is now expected to come down this Thursday, June 28. While we all drum our fingers, law expert Renée Landers reviewed the four possible scenarios and explains the ramifications of each.

BOSTON — On June 25, President Barack Obama will attend a campaign fundraiser at Boston’s Symphony Hall. The event comes at a tough time for the Obama campaign. Republican Mitt Romney outraised Obama in May. It was the first time he had done so. And outside groups supporting Romney spent $16 million on ads slamming Obama in the swing states. The president will attend two more fundraisers in the Bay State before heading out.

Also on June 25, opponents of a casino at East Boston’s Suffolk Downs will hold a community meeting. Developers want to build a 300-room hotel and resort casino at the thoroughbred racing track. Supporters say it will create 2,500 construction jobs and 4,000 resort jobs. But opponents fear increased crime, traffic congestion and reduced property values.

And on June 26, state officials are planning to break ground on a $106 million Hollywood-like studio complex at the former military base in Devens. The state announced $5 million in tax-increment financing for the project, which cuts taxes for the complex over 20 years. The fully occupied complex is expected to host 800 jobs.

BOSTON — As longtime Democratic incumbent Barney Frank prepares to retire from his 4th Congressional District seat, the favorite to replace him is likely Democratic nominee Joe Kennedy III. For a Republican to have a chance against Kennedy, they’ll need to ignite GOP passions the way Scott Brown did before winning election to the Senate in 2010. But mudslinging between the top two GOP contenders could make that unlikely.

Two years ago, Republican Sean Bielat mounted an impressive challenge to Frank. Now he’s running again — and trying to fight off fellow Republican Elizabeth Childs, who served as Mitt Romney’s commissioner of mental health.

To hear Bielat tell it, though, Childs doesn’t really belong in the GOP. As he told New England Cable News earlier this month: “You know, I don’t know to what extent a lot of people would consider her a Republican.“

She says operative, he says intern

That’s because Childs left the GOP in the 1980s and voted in the state’s Democratic primary just 2 years ago. But Bielat’s attacks raised Childs’ hackles — because Bielat is also a former Democrat. The day after Bielat put out a press release casting Childs as a closet Democrat, Childs fired back with a release of her own highlighting Bielat’s work as an “operative” for the Clinton-Gore campaign.

According to Bielat, though, that characterization is a bit overblown.

“I think that if, while I was involved in interning for the ’96 Clinton-Gore campaign, someone had told me I was an ‘operative,’ I would have been extremely flattered,” he told WGBH. “I was a junior in college, the campaign headquarters was a little ways down the street from Georgetown and I interned there 10 hours a week.”

“The whole thing’s goofy”

Bielat did admit that, after graduating from Georgetown University, he did opposition research for Democratic politicians. But he said that in contrast to Childs, his dalliances with the Democratic Party were youthful indiscretions.

“It’s a false equivalency to say, ‘16 years ago, Sean did some stuff when he was, you know, 22, 23 years old — and 11 months ago I did something when I was 50,’” he argued. “It’s not exactly parallel. So it’s goofy. The whole thing’s goofy.

Childs claimed that explanation didn’t hold up.

“Well, he’s only a little bit beyond when he was a Democrat,” she said of Bielat. “He was a Democrat up until he moved to Brookline to run against Barney Frank, and worked — worked! — on Democratic campaigns, was steeped in that his whole life as a Democrat.”

Worried about abortion, but more worried about debt

Asked about her switch from the Republicans to the Democrats and back again, Childs said she left the GOP when the party became increasingly strident on abortion. Then, last year, she returned to the Republican fold after concluding that Democrats weren’t serious about addressing the national debt.

“The fiscal issues I decided were so critical that as important as the choice issue is to me, if our children don’t have freedoms because we as a country are broke, then frankly, we may have won a battle but lost the war,” Childs said. “And I wasn’t willing to do that.”

The sniping between Bielat and Childs makes for good political theater. But it could leave the party with a nominee who’s incapable of exciting the Republican base. One beneficiary of this bickering could be David Steinhof, a Fall River dentist who’s also seeking the Republican nomination and calls himself the “conservative choice” for 4th District voters. There’s just one problem: he used to be a Democrat, too.

BOSTON — When it comes to journalists getting involved in politics most news organizations err on the side of caution, telling staff to keep their sympathies quiet. But when reporter Gail Huff asked permission to star in a pair of new ads for her husband, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, Washington’s WJLA-TV said … go right ahead.

Huff may be a bit biased when it comes to Brown — she is his wife, after all. In several new campaign ads the longtime television reporter praises Brown as a model husband and fantastic father, saying in one, "If the kids had a problem they didn’t call me — they called Dad."

Huff’s praise could help Brown fend off Democrat Elizabeth Warren. But whether Huff should be a campaign surrogate at all is debatable. During Brown’s last campaign, Huff was at Boston’s WCVB. She didn’t campaign for her husband or even appear with him until election night.

After that race, she said, "What was hard was not to be able to be out there in public support — to say that this is my husband, I love him, I support him."

Now she’s making her support very public. And her current employer doesn’t mind. A spokeswoman for WJLA told Beat the Press, “We discussed it with Gail and we decided it was okay — she’s not a political reporter.”

But sometimes Huff’s general-assignment work does touch on political topics, such as the Occupy movement. In an April 5 story on police attempts to move protesters out of a park, she said, "All you have to do is look at the ground to see the problem. … We still have many tents here. They’ll have to go."

For the record, that’s the same Occupy movement that’s been praised by Warren and panned by Brown — proof Huff may need to do more to keep politics and her career separate.

BOSTON — Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown is stepping up personal attacks on his Democratic opponent. After leaving the issue mostly to surrogates, he appeared on national television twice the week of June 11 questioning Elizabeth Warren's claims of Native American ancestry.

"When you’re running for elective office, especially high elective office, you have to pass a test. And the test is about truthfulness and credibility and honesty. And quite frankly she failed that test as evidenced by her claiming to be Native American and her checking the box and making misrepresentations to not only Harvard but Penn,” he said.

He said the same thing on CBS Network News on June 11.

Warren defended herself on MSNBC, asserting that she does have Native American heritage but she never used it to get a job or a raise.

“This is how I grew up, this is my family. I’m not backing off from my family. It became clear I didn’t get anything for law school applications or from college or for any of the jobs that I was hired for," she said.

Warren has gone through a slow wringer over whether she inappropriately identified herself as Native American in order to advance her academic career. And while a Suffolk University poll in May showed a majority of voters don't care about her heritage, some party leaders have expressed concern that Warren's handling of the situation shows the dangers of putting such an inexperienced campaigner in a high-profile race.

For months, Brown's campaign staff has been calling reporters and bombarding them with press releases pushing the Native American story line. But the week of June 11 marks the first time he took the attacks national in network television interviews.

So far, Brown hasn't run any attack ads about Warren's heritage. And an agreement he signed with Warren back earlier this year bans third-party PACs from doing the dirty work for him.?. But as the campaign gets more competitive in the following months, Brown might have to go even more on the offensive.

BOSTON — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren committed today to a televised debate hosted by the Boston Media Consortium, a group that includes WGBH TV and Radio, the Boston Globe, NECN, WCVB-TV, WHDH-TV, and WBUR-FM.

“Elizabeth is looking forward to the opportunity to discuss the issues facing middle class families across the Commonwealth,” Mindy Myers, Warren’s campaign manager, said in a prepared statement. “The voters want to hear from the candidates about their plans to create jobs, help students attend college and create a level playing field for all Americans.”

In its letter to the candidates, the Boston Media Consortium proposed Oct. 30 and Nov. 1 as possible dates. The final date and site have yet to be determined, however.

Warren and Brown have already committed to two other televised debates – one hosted by WBZ-TV’s Jon Keller, and another in Springfield hosted by a consortium of media outlets. A call to Brown’s campaign was not immediately returned Wednesday afternoon.

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — Fresh off an overwhelming win at the state’s Democratic convention — where she secured support from 96 percent of the delegates and kept rival Marisa DeFranco from getting on the primary ballot this fall — Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren said she’s eager to win the backing of DeFranco and her supporters.

“You know, I reached out to Marisa, and I hope Marisa will be part of this campaign,” Warren told WGBH News. “I’ve met Marisa many times out on the trail, and always admired her great spunk and her commitment to issues. Now it’s time to go forward, though, and take this Senate seat back. You know, the whole balance of the United States Senate could stand on what we do here in Massachusetts.”

Some DeFranco supporters have complained that the state Democratic establishment worked to shunt her aside — citing, among other things, Gov. Deval Patrick’s surprise endorsement of Warren prior to the convention. Warren said her landslide convention win was the result of honest hard work.

“I’ve been out there for 8 1/2 months, working for every single vote,” Warren said. “We’ve put together a team that’s been out on the grassroots, making phone calls and knocking on doors and shaking hands. And this is it. It came together at the convention, and now it’s time to go forward into November.”

Warren also responded to a Boston Globe article that suggested some African American ministers in Greater Boston are skeptical of her candidacy.

“I haven’t had a chance to meet with everyone,” Warren said. “Now that I’m the Democratic nominee, I hope I get a chance, absolutely, to reach out. I want to meet with all the members of the clergy that it’s at all possible to. I want to reach out — my door is open, but I’m not going to wait for people to come to me. That door is gonna be open, and I’m going out to try to meet people.”
]]>Mon, 04 Jun 2012 09:29 AM +0000http://www.wgbh.org//articles/What-Now-in-the-US-Senate-Race-6387
http://www.wgbh.org//articles/What-Now-in-the-US-Senate-Race-6387
June 4, 2012

Elizabeth Warren at the state Democratic convention on June 2. (Michael Dwyer/AP)

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — U.S. Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts has congratulated his Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Warren, for winning her party's endorsement and said he wants a debate. Warren said on June 2 after winning her party’s endorsement that she will debate Brown and that she is ready. She won nearly 96 percent at the state convention, avoiding a primary.

With Warren's decisive victory, supporters are hoping the campaign can regain some steady footing. The campaign has spent weeks mired in controversy over whether Warren improperly identified as Native American to boost her academic career.

At the convention, Warren used her speech to go after Scott Brown and to signal the Native American flap is behind her:

"I am not backing down. I didn’t get in this race to fold up the first time I got punched. I got in this race because people are getting hammered and they’re counting on me to stand up to them. I’m ready," she said.

Warren's Democratic opponent, immigration attorney Marisa DeFranco failed to get the 15 percent of delegates to land a spot on September's primary ballot.

As late as the morning of June 2, Democratic state party chair John Walsh had been predicting that DeFranco would meet the 15 percent threshold, but at the convention there were practically no DeFranco supporters. Everyone was wearing Elizabeth Warren T-shirts and waving Elizabeth Warren signs.

Party leaders were saying a primary would hurt Democrats in their bid to unseat Brown and retain control of the Senate. That was convincing to delegates like Carol Thompson from Worcester, who said, "I would really like us to avoid a primary fight. So it seems to me we have enough on our hands with the Republican incumbent.”

DeFranco, for her part, blamed the party establishment. “Well, it’s Massachusetts politics. Of course it’s a machine. We’re supposed to be a government of the people, that means everybody, not just the people who are hand-picked or in certain cliques,” she said.

Just 3 days before the convention, as it looked like DeFranco was gaining some last-minute momentum, Gov. Deval Patrick, who earlier said he would stay neutral, pulled the rug from under DeFranco by endorsing Warren. Also, party bigwig and former governor Michael Dukakis, who tends to stay out of intraparty politics, was working the floor on Saturday, persuading delegates to back Warren.

In Warren’s victory speech she thanked DeFranco from the podium and said now she was ready to take on Brown: "It’s exciting to be here today. The Democrats have decided we’re ready to go! We’re ready!"

Both Brown and Warren have agreed to a debate, but it has yet to be scheduled.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren overwhelmingly won the support of her party at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention on June 2. Warren received support from nearly 96 percent of the delegates — a record, and enough to avoid a party primary in September. Warren also had the backing of the Democratic establishment and the endorsement of Gov. Deval Patrick, the state’s most popular pol.

Warren has been dogged in recent weeks by criticism over her claims to Native American ancestry. She used her convention speech to blast incumbent Scott Brown and to revive the enthusiasm that marked the early days of her campaign:

"Are you ready to take on Wall Street? Are you ready to take on Big Oil? Are you ready to stop the Republicans from taking over the United States Senate? Are you ready to tell Scott Brown to put on his $675 barn coat and go home? Are you ready?"

The speech also focused on Brown’s voting record and his stances on issues like the environment, job creation and student loans. As for the controversy over her heritage, she said Brown's primary campaign tactic "is to talk about my family and how I grew up. Well, I say this: If that’s all you’ve got, Scott Brown, I’m ready.”

Patrick said Democrats needed to get tough: "If we want to win elections in 2012, if we want to keep Barack Obama in the White House, win back our Senate seat, and move our country forward, if we want to earn the privilege to lead, then it’s time for Democrats to grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe."

Marisa DeFranco, the underdog who seemed to enjoy a burst of momentum last week, used her convention speech to make a final plea to voters to let her on to the primary ticket, saying, "Let’s have a good and healthy primary and go after Scott Brown all summer long together. We will be the stronger for it."

DeFranco championed liberal values, including single-payer health care and union rights. She attributed the day's results partly to party favoritism.

"Well, it’s Massachusetts politics. Of course it’s a machine. But that’s why I’m in the race. Because I have to believe there’s room for real democracy — that a candidate or person, who sees that they want to do something actually make a difference, doesn’t have to be rich. Doesn’t have to have machine backing," she said. "We’re supposed to be a government of the people. That means everybody, not just the people who are hand-picked or in certain cliques.”

Warren now has a clean shot at Brown from now until November. The Warren-Brown race is expected to be the most closely watched Senate race in the nation.

The convention also paid tribute to retiring representatives John Olver and Barney Frank. Rep. Edward Markey said of the latter, "When they build a Mount Rushmore for liberals, Barney Frank is going to be up there."

BOSTON — The chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party has predicted that U.S. Senate candidate Marisa DeFranco will be on the primary ballot this fall — even though Gov. Deval Patrick endorsed her opponent, frontrunner Elizabeth Warren, on Thursday.

DeFranco needs backing from 15 percent of the delegates at this weekend's Massachusetts Democratic Party Convention in Springfield. Walsh said that shouldn't be a problem.

"It's a pretty foregone conclusion that Elizabeth Warren will get the endorsement of the convention, and Marisa will get her 15 percent," he said. "We've been doing this for 30 years, endorsing at conventions, and no one has ever gotten 86 percent."

The threshold was deliberately set low, he said. "There are people in the party who just believe competition's a benefit, and Marisa's been working hard."

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON — The steps of the Massachusetts State House turned into a political combat zone Thursday. Supporters of President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney were picketing, shouting at each other and holding up traffic on Beacon Street.

David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, was in Boston to criticize Romney’s record as governor. Romney's supporters tried to drown out his speech; Axelrod responded by saying, “You can shout down speakers, my friends, but it’s hard to Etch-a-Sketch the truth away.”

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick endorsed Elizabeth Warren for the Democratic nomination to challenge Sen. Scott Brown at a hastily called press conference in Somerville on May 30.

Originally Patrick said he would stay out of the race until after the Democrats select a nominee. Just 3 days before the party convention in Springfield, he changed his mind.

“I just feel this is just a campaign that is so critically important and that it is time for us to turn our attention to our Republican opponent,” he said.

Warren is considered the prohibitive favorite for the Democratic nomination. But immigration attorney Marisa DeFranco does need just 15 percent of convention delegates to win a spot on the primary ballot. If she succeeds, it could create a distraction for Warren.

Patrick was questioned about whether he was trying to keep DeFranco off the ballot. He said that was not the case.

The endorsement is a bright spot in what has otherwise been a tough month for Warren, who has been dogged by the debate over whether or not she improperly identified as Native American in order to further her academic career.

At the press conference, both Patrick and Warren deflected questions about her purported Native American heritage.When a reporter criticized that response as not providing an answer, Warren retorted, "It is an answer," adding, "he reason that I’m in this race is what I have been working on for decades now. I have stood by and watched while America’s families have gotten hammered."

Patrick said, “Let me say on behalf of the people of the Commonwealth, we don’t care about that subject." Recent polls suggest that most Bay State voters are not interested in Warren's ancestry.

Reached in her car, DeFranco was undeterred.

"I'm disappointed, especially 2 days before this very big convention. But the bottom line, basically, is that endorsements are not going to win this election. This election is going to be won on the ground," she said.

Marisa DeFranco, left, and Elizabeth Warren at a debate in December 2011. Now DeFranco is calling for a one-on-one face-off with Warren. (Rich Morgan/Stonehill College)

BOSTON — Her U.S. Senate campaign has little cash and no paid staff. Yet Massachusetts Democrat Marisa DeFranco is on the verge of qualifying for the September primary ballot if she gets enough votes at the upcoming convention in Springfield.

Consumer advocate and Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren is expected to easily win the party’s endorsement to the U.S. Senate. But DeFranco, a North Shore attorney, is gathering steam. Party officials say she will likely get the 15 percent of delegate votes needed to qualify for the primary ballot.

Some Democrats worry a contested primary could force Warren to divert her resources instead of focusing on the incumbent Republican, Scott Brown. And Warren's had a tough month. She has been dogged by the debate over whether or not she improperly identified as Native American in order to further her academic career — although a recent Suffolk University/7 News poll suggests most voters don’t care much about the issue.

Democratic Party chairman John Walsh said a DeFranco challenge won't do lasting damage to the Democrats in the fall general election.

Warren responds to DeFranco's demand for a debate (5:45)

“Elizabeth Warren has entered this race and has presented a somewhat historic level of support," he said. "Whether you look at the support she’s garnered on the ground, or financially, or her poll numbers, she really has come forward.”

As for the candidates in question, in conversations with WGBH News, both wanted to focus on the issues.

"We have been trying and trying and trying to pay attention to substance and issues in this campaign," DeFranco said. "We've been talking about a real jobs plan, how do we get people back to work. Those are things that matter to people on a day-to-day business. … They want to work hard, live the American dream and be who we are about in America."

For her part, Warren told WGBH News that she's been "meeting with people and talking about issues and really framing out what this election of 2012 is going to be about."

And Warren still had her sights primarily on incumbent Scott Brown: "The main thing is how to get out there so the voters of Massachusetts have the chance to see what the real differences are between what the Democrats are offering in this race and what the Republicans are offering."

BOSTON — Former presidential candidate Bill Bradley says the American political system is broken — and it's partly the fault of the Citizens United decision.

In 2009 and 2010, "the financial industry contributed $318 million to politicians in Washington, the health care industry contributed $145 million and the energy industry $75 million," Bradley said. "So it shouldn't be any surprise to us that financial reform was watered down, that health care did not have a public option to private insurance and that we didn't even get around to an energy bill. … Money rests at the center."

Given the Supreme Court ruling, the only solution, he said, "is a constitutional amendment that says federalm\, state and local governments may limit the amount of money spent in political campaigns."

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A Boston-area whiz kid starts a tech company and then moves West to seek fame and fortune. No, I’m not talking about Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s monumental IPO. I’m talking about Thomas Massie, an MIT grad who founded SensAble Technologies in the 1990s. SensAble was recently acquired, but Massie has gone on to become a Tea Party political hero in his home state of Kentucky. He’s now running for Congress and is the favorite to win the Republican nomination in next week’s primary. Massie credits former White House Chief of Staff John Sununu, a fellow MIT grad, for inspiring him to get into politics as an engineer.

In other innovation news …

Biotech firm Promedior, a maker of treatments for tissue damage known as fibrosis, is moving its headquarters from Pennsylvania to Boston and has hired a veteran of the Irish drug giant Shire as its new CEO.

MIT has elected provost L. Rafael Reif as its 17th president. The university also named Web startup CloudTop the winner of its $100K business plan competition and got a nice nod from U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park. At the finale event, Park said the U.S. government was taking a play from MIT’s book by holding its own entrepreneurship competitions. If so, they might want to look out for a certain MIT grad from Kentucky, if he ends up making it to Washington, D.C.

The weekly roundup of business, technology and life science news from our partners at Xconomy.com airs every Friday on 89.7 Boston Public Radio.